Who Can Afford To Lose Sanity?

However, some demented people make our existence miserable. They burst like devils, in moments of madness and outrage, to disturb the normality of our lives, steal away our peace of mind, and devastate the foundations of families and communities.

Similar to the volatile elements that produce dreadful explosives, a combination of twisted thinking, ideologies, and negative behavior also lead to violence. Arrogance, greed, blind ambitions for domination, and mistrust are the kind of mixture that lead to the kind of violence that engulf many regions of the world today.

Violence takes on many ugly forms in this gloomy time. We are condemned to live in a troublesome environment overflowing with violence and aggression that stifle the life out of many of us so that we can hardly breathe.

Denying people honest jobs, equal opportunities, good education, decent housing, and health care, while at the same time stripping them of their dignity and basic human rights are also consequences of other forms of violence that we face in the age of modernity and self-acclaimed civilization.

Violence breeds atrocities and devastation which have become rampant throughout the whole world. Names, causes, and claims do not matter any more and justifications confuse any sensible and sensitive person. Whether the violence is committed by individuals, groups, or states the end result is one and the same; misery, hatred, and open invitation for more violence.

Madness takes control of people when they are bent on destruction, revenge, and insist on inflicting harm and humiliation to destroy and hurt others. In the dark moments of rage they do not differentiate between helpless children, frightened women, old or sick persons, disabled or innocent ones. In every violent situation the people involved become void of normal human feeling and consideration, and act like raged animals. They lose sanity and sober judgment.

Violence is not limited to inflicting harm on others. It becomes part of the individual psychic and general behavior. Nations that commit violence against others, and allow their children to turn into instruments of destruction, find the ugly results later. Sooner or later, they pay heavy prices in dealing with the sickness, disorder, and crime in their own communities. They suffer from the consequences of violence ingrained in their own children, who become accustomed to abnormal behavior. They always regret letting them indulge in horrible acts and tolerating violence as a means to shameful ends.

In the absence of restraint, self-control, justice, fair dealing, and true respect for law, prevention of all despicable acts of violence is becoming harder and harder with every occurrence and every violent act. This is one of the most difficult challenges facing all of us today: How can we oppose domination, control corruption, and eliminate violence? What do you think? (discussion forum)

Radwan Hamwi is a volunteer on youth campaign, has studied mass communication, worked in several industries in the Middle East, and is teaching Arabic as a (TA) in a private school in Palo Alto, CA. You can reach him at youth_campaign@iolteam.com